With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

BR549 · 2026-10-30T06:31:37+0000

timeForced · 2026-10-30T07:06:14+0000

Maybe Apokolips has been crystalising the fear of those about to die for millenia.

Chojin Patriarch · 2026-10-30T07:26:25+0000

Mr Zoat said:
16th October 2013
17:17 G.M.T.

"Jordan, still alive?"

"Yeah. I disabled a squadron of destroyers, and one of the battleships blew them up!"

Huh. Either they were throwing bigger ships at him, or he's overestimating their classes. Good to see him handling their shit, though. It can't be nearly as easy for him as it is for OL, after all, without Ring AI assistance.

"Same here." Destroyers? Maybe. Two more squadrons are approaching their maximum effective range. "Surprised?"

"Whenever pirate captains I've fought did things like that, their own crew got rid of them."

Which means that they're uncommonly loyal to Mongul, or are so afraid of his ire they follow without complaint.

"Assuming Mongul Junior takes after his father, he's probably too strong and tough for that. You worked out how to jam them?"

"No, I'm just warping in and out of the system before they can hem me in. What happened to you?"

I suppose they can't block his warp, since they need it for their own weapon to work.

"Not sure what they hit me with, but it actually hit through my jamming. Jade?"

"They don't just warp space to fire spatial charges. They can also fire capital ship maser cannons down warped channels."

...Ah. So they dropped a shot beyond his jammer radius and let physics take its course.

"…oh." Yes, that would work. Must be a bit fiddly. The engineering required to keep something like that going would be significant, and if he's executing anyone who gets his coffee order wrong…

"I though you were-. Hang on." … "Stablizing space?"

The science must be being handled by AI systems so smart they're all but sentient, or they have a very good rapid education system for their engineers.

"Yes, but the effect scales with the size of the jammer. I was just trying to stop them dropping a spatial charge on my head, not stop them sending them anywhere in the system. Sending a maser beam ninety nine percent of the way isn't much different to-."

"Right, got it. Ideas?"

Hal isn't one for technobabble, eh?

"I could go to the other side of the planet, use it as concealment and shoot them through it."

"No."

As nasty as the planet is, there's bound to be some innocents living on it. So unless you're skipping shots through space-time an missing the planet entirely, it's gonna take damage.

"Alright." Jammers… Bigger, this time. Gun mantle, thick enough to take another maser shot. And a singularity projector. "I'll do it from-."

The mantle abrades as one of the battleships does indeed take the shot.

Since it seemed to work so well the first time.

"From here. Any idea what's in those charges?"

"Nothing on file matches. There aren't that many ways to stop constructs, and most of them need to be, you know, in one piece."

So it looks like they might have found something new. Or maybe something so old no-one remembers it.

Target the dreadnaught and fire.

Reality jumps as spacetime is squeezed in a direct like between my gun and the-. The space near the dreadnaught, because they can use their spatial warping technology to partially counter my gun. It still hits, still gives their armour a good rattle, but that's all.

Mother-fuckers. Man, that gun never seems to do well against prepared enemies...

I dismiss the construct. "And they have defensive warp fields. Long range bombardment of the capital ships is impractical."

"You think they dug it up?"

If this world is as old as it appears to be as an Apokoliptian weapons testing ground... There's bound to be truly horrific things around.

"Depends on long they've been here. Maybe. Canis hasn't mentioned anything like this, and you know he'd boast about it."

"Can't you just do that step thing onto their bridge?"

"Considered it, realised that if they can block constructs I'd probably die."

Which just means capture or a fast-track to his next respawn. Not fun.

"How about somewhere else?"

"Sure. Where?"

Somewhere he can call for backup maybe?

"The surface. If you can find out what's going on, we might be able to start making sense of this."

Right. Fabricate drones shaped like my armour with orange light emitting diodes so that it looks a bit like I'm still here, release. I don't know how good Mongul's sensors are, but hopefully not that good.

Clever. Not the classic Gundam decoy balloon, but pretty close.

"Sure you can manage without me?"

"I've-."

...Got this? Can you be totally sure of that, mister 'I don't know the meaning of the word fear'?

"I'll keep an eye on him."

"Thank you, darling. Back shortly."

I can picture her rolling her eyes at the men trying to out-bravery each other...

I step out, looking through the manifestations of desire for some sort of clue or target. Mongul II's desires are similar enough to his sister's… No, I recognise that shape. Identical in nature but more unrestrained. He'd be a powerful Orange Lantern, at the cost of virtually all of his ability to interact with people. Might be a decent way to beat him, actually.

So not even the focused man his father was. I bet he wasn't a great Yellow Lantern either in the comics...

The classical evil overlord thing to do would be to have his captured Green Lantern displayed in his throne room, but that seems like an unnecessary risk. Even if they removed their ring, the moment that the construct suppression system failed, they'd have a fully powered Green Lantern who was now aware of how they were beaten the first time to deal with.

Maybe keep the Ring in a suppressed containment field, but having it anywhere near a skilled user would be foolish.

I focus my attention on the planet instead. Can't feel a Green Lantern there either, but I shouldn't assume that Green Lanterns have to feel alike. But the people working there… They mostly want to be somewhere else. And for some of them that's in a grave. Some… Further away… Yes, that'll do. I

And any Greenie might be in a shielded location anyway.

step in, engaging my armour's stealth systems.

Now, let's see who we're looking at here. Stocky humanoid, mouth… Looks like a predator who tears chunks off their food and doesn't chew. Basic protective clothing, and plenty of visible scars. They're sitting under a tree, looking up at the sky and generally-.

Either dying, or accepting that he's about to be killed soon one way or another.

No one else around? Good.

I deactivate my stealth system, take a small bowl of stew out of subspace and hold it out. The former miner starts to rise and then stops, presumably trying to work out who and what I am.

Ah, good, he hasn't given up on life just yet.

"Escaped slave? Not a problem. I'm willing to trade food for information now, and offer you a chance at freedom later."

"I am free. They do not put walls around the dig site. This world kills all who leave." He snorts. "But I have at least that much courage. Who are you?"

Suggests there's deposits of self-regenerating weapons and war-creatures around, and he's in the territory of one...

"I am the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps."

"Ah? Like the Green Lanterns?"

"Sort of."

Let's hope the locals aren't up on the differences. Especially if they taunt him about not being allowed to kill, only for someone to get vaporised in the same breath...

"They already captured one of your kind. You will not defeat Mongul on your own."

"Are you offering to help?"

Well, at least he seems to know about the captured Greenie. Might even know where he is.

He makes an… Odd noise. His people's laughter. "I prefer to die peacefully."

"I don't, but alright. You know this place is an Apokoliptian proving ground?"

Which means the things here might not kill you instantly. So very much not a peaceful death...

"Yes. We are in a zone with deadly insects. Their sting melts your nerves, so that you cannot feel it as their larvae grow within you and then eat you."

"Surprisingly merciful. The version on my homeworld just paralyses you. Do you know where the Green Lantern is being held?"

I can picture the guy going 'Wait, what?' at that comment. To be fair, some Earth insects are nasty. Especially native Australian shit. We're Earth's testing ground, it seems.

"The tunnels, by the dig site, surrounded by the cursed crystal we mine. He will not help you either; he is powerless."

"'Cursed crystal'?"

"To us, it just causes nightmares. That is why I ran. For you? Your ring dies."

Oh, I'm definitely seconding @BR259 on this. Zoat's used GL-Animated stuff before...

"Okay." I pass him the bowl and he takes it with relish. "If I survive, and you haven't been impregnated, I'll be back for you."

"You should." He raises the bowl to his maw. "This is a nice bowl. It would be a shame if the insects got it."

I like this guy. He's got a very sensible view on life...

Hmm... If those crystals are like embodied Fear, would them being ground into a scatterable powder be responsible for the construct dead-zone weapons? Just saturating the area with Fear that any other Emotional constructs dissolve from it? That would probably also empower any Yellow Lantern fighting in the space. So not something our heroes can afford to let loose.

BR549 · 2026-10-30T07:39:59+0000

Chojin Patriarch said:
Huh. Either they were throwing bigger ships at him, or he's overestimating their classes.

Hal's a former United States Air Force pilot. For whatever reason, 'corvette' is a ship classification our Navy has always seemed deathly allergic to; they either classify them as (small) frigates., or the one time we recently built vessels of the classic corvette style they were the Little Crappy Ships.

I would have expected Hal to refer to them as 'frigates' if they're the same ships OL was (likely more correctly, as the Brits have always been rather fond of the type) describing as 'corvettes', but as once every ship with a gun was a battleship in the eyes of the layman, nowadays that seems to have shifted to 'every combat ship is a destroyer', and even some navies have bent the definition beyond all believable bounds...

With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

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BR549

This is filth! FILTH!!

timeForced

Making the rounds.

Chojin Patriarch

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BR549

This is filth! FILTH!!

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